1st Day of School - Let's Play Two

I had a major quandary today (for Bush-backers, that means I had to put my thinking cap on). The first day back to school for my two darling sons - a big event fraught with stress, worry, and $437 worth of school supplies. Yes, a double latte day all on its own, but as if that weren't enough, the Yankees were playing two games against Detroit. So my dilemma was - who would pick up my kids from school?

This had been an issue before. A few weeks ago my sons had staged an intervention. "Mom," the shorter one said, "You like baseball more than us."

"That's ridiculous," I replied. "Quit blocking the tv. Jeter's batting."

This time the first game was on while I was at work so I got to watch it without interruption. However, the second one posed a bit of a problem. It was on during what I like to call the "Witching Hour" - when most families eat dinner and talk to each other. Yes, I know - how absurd. Plus, like I mentioned, this was the first day of that school thingy they have to do every year until they move out. And I just knew they'd start whining about how I shouldn't pack beer in their lunchboxes and how I had dropped them off at the wrong school so they had to walk to the right one, and to be perfectly honest, I had heard it all before. Time for a new pitch, boys.

We got home in time to see the last few innings of the game. I tossed them a jar of peanut butter and two spoons, and got to work studying Proctor's delivery. He was dropping his shoulder, overthrowing the ball again. Sure enough, some mook homered off him to win the game for Detroit. Ugh. If this was the way the rest of the season was going to be, I might just as well spend my time talking to my kids.

If only I could remember where I put them.